Winter has final let loose its grip on New England and all but the occasional chill is gone. It is place is an ever changing array of good weather with overcast days. This weekend, on Saturday, MN gave us a beautiful, resplendent day and we took full advantage.

After doing a bunch of errands and chores, we all piled in the car and took off for Rota Springs, our local ice cream stand. Unfortunately, they did not have my flavor of frozen yogurt, which means that I had to endure the painful process of watching others eat delicious ice cream.

My reward though was well worth it. After that we drove into Worcester and got Chik-Fli-A for dinner. I am a huge Chik-Fil-A fan, especially because the CFA near me is owned by someone that is a bit more progressive than the company itself. This happened to be Ethan’s first trip to CFA and he really enjoyed it. Even more surprising is the fact that he liked the fries. Ethan hates fries and pizza which, given his age, may make him an alien.

We ate at Elm Park in Worcester where the boys chased geese. It was a very pleasant spring weekend. Except for the geese. They were pretty miserable.

The third week in April was the boy’s Spring Break. It started with a canceled school day on Friday (due to REAL snow in April) and ended with a trip to the tallest water fall in Massachusetts—Bash Bish Falls (which I mistakenly called Bish Bash Falls when I first found it because of the Thomas the Train characters Bish and Bash, which were really big with I-man at the time…thank god Ethan never got into Thomas the Train).

The Falls themselves were utterly spectacular. While not as enormous as Niagra Falls, you can get very close to them and so the power of nature has an immediacy that is hard to look away from. On the way back we found a huge deposit of what looks like raw agate. We snagged a few pieces and they await tumbling as we speak.

The Beeth was a bit overwhelmed by the roaring waters. He got used to it after a while and started to loosen up. I-man was a like puma, jumping from rock to rock. We also had an impromptu stone skipping lesson where Isaac finally made the transition from “buttlicker” (somone that can’t skip a rock) to “stoneskipper” (someone who can). Unfortunately the little joke backfired, as Ethan asked if he was a buttlicker. I told him that rules for buttlicker v. stoneskipper only apply after someone’s 7th birthday. He acknowledged the reasonableness of this rule and was no longer concerned about his status.

There is no better way to start the nice outdoor weather than a bike ride and there is absolutely nothing better than a bike ride with your buddies. As you can see, I do mean “buddies” as Ethan has really taken a huge leap on his bike in the past two weeks.

Here we are tooling around St. Bernard’s track. Ethan is really pumping and, truth be told, doesn’t need training wheels at all. He is plenty fast and combined with his stubbornness, is unwilling to yield to obstacles, even if he is still in under two miles total. Tonight, after a delicious dinner for Easter with Nanna and P-Pa, we went for a ride and Ethan did a full mile.

He kept asking me: “Dad are you proud of me?” This is like top ten proudest moments ever. His desire to ride and keep up with his big brother is inspiring.